more camping!

Time for me to start posting again!  :-)  A lot has happened since my last post...a road trip to Disneyworld / Legoland / a beautiful beach in southwest FL, holidays, road trip to GA, birthdays, Maggie lost her first 2 teeth, my brother got married, Will's grandfather passed away, another road trip to GA, spring wildflower hikes, just to name a few.  Too many pictures to go back and post!

We went camping again at Merchant's Millpond over Easter weekend with some friends.  This time, we decided to make it a little more challenging by reserving one of the canoe-in campsites.  We had the large group campsite to ourselves and it was relatively peaceful (except for the noise from 6 kids) and quiet (except for the incessant honking of geese on the pond).  We saw tons of wildlife, including a black rat snake at our campsite, salamanders, frogs, and lizards on our hike, birds and turtles while canoeing, a beaver off in the distance in front of our canoe, and a very large alligator (this park is near the northernmost part of their range).

all of the kids (l to r): Maggie, Lilly, Eli, Jacob, Lukas (standing above Jacob), Emma

Will loading all of our gear into our extra boat (we brought it specifically to tow our gear to camp) while our friends Leslie & Chris look on

and away we go!

at the campsite, Lilly and Emma hamming it up for the camera

I spotted the black rat snake behind our tent and Chris (who happens to be a wildlife professor at NC State) caught it so the kids could see it

Chris caught several little salamanders on our hike

and male and female fence lizards

Lukas and the lizard

big kids' turn in front of the camera

we packed in a bunch of hard-boiled eggs to dye

Easter morning egg hunt

canoeing after the Easter egg hunt...Kristina and Javier (Lukas & Emma's parents)

Chris took this picture of the large alligator sunning with some turtles...this was particularly exciting for Kristina (from Germany) and Javier (from Spain) who had never seen an alligator in the wild

camping trip

We went on a short road trip / camping trip to the mountains 2 weeks ago.  Our friends Stephen & Victoria live outside of Hendersonville, so we decided to visit them, go hiking at DuPont State Forest,  and then all go camping across the state line in South Carolina for a night.  We had a great time visiting with them, and the girls LOVE their daughter Samantha (who is a few months younger than Lilly).  The girls got along fabulously and there were no melt-downs, tantrums, or even little girl drama / disagreements whatsoever.

at the beginning of our hike at DuPont State Forest

Victoria took a photo of everyone...but now we don't have a picture of Victoria!

Summer family photo

Triple Falls at DuPont State Forest

Maggie and Samantha having a snack and goofing off

a rare Daddy & Lilly photo

after hiking at DuPont, we headed to Jones Gap State Park just across the state line in South Carolina to set up camp...the Middle Saluda River was right next to our campsite

the girls played in the water for a long time

mudpies!!

cool purple mushroom at our campsite

pretty spiderweb that was backlit perfectly

our campsite...it was quiet and private because it was at the end of a trail, over 300 yards from the parking area

the girls spontaneously starting singing "itsy bitsy spider"...too cute, I couldn't resist taking some photos!

the girls spent a long time collecting big acorns and piling them up at the base of this tree for "a squirrel or a fairy"

everyone had to pose by the acorns

 

notice how the pile has grown

the girls kept wanting their picture taken, so I have a series of about 20 photos of silly faces

 

first week of kindergarten!

This week was Maggie's first full week of kindergarten!  Here in Raleigh, public schools do something called staggered entry...kindergarteners only go 1 day the first week of school (which was last week) so that the teachers can assess them / their skill levels and assign a diverse mix of kids to each class.  So Maggie went last Tuesday, and then Thursday night we found out who her teachers would be (Ms. Smith and Mrs. Proctor), and Friday we went to a "meet the teacher" at the school.  There are 6 kindergarten classes at her school, and she has 23 other kids in her class (I think there are ~ 140 kindergarteners total).  There is only 1 former classmate from her preschool in her class, but her 2 best friends, Eli and Emerson, are in neighboring classrooms so she gets to see them at recess time.  So far, she is really loving kindergarten!  She is so excited to tell me about all her new friends, and every day she exclaims "I can't believe I'm in kindergarten!!".

staggered entry day last week

first day of school this week

Lilly started back in preschool this week

We will have pretty much the same schedule that we had last year.  I go to work at the Botanical Gardens early in the mornings, so Will gets the girls up and walks them to school.  Maggie's elementary school is right behind our house, and the preschool is at a church just across the street.  Since Maggie has to be at school b/w 8:00-8:15, and preschool doesn't start until 9:00, Will gets some quality time with Lilly after taking Maggie to school.  And since I come home from work to pick Lilly up from preschool at 12:30, but Maggie doesn't get out of school until 3:00, I also get some quality time with just Lilly.    

So, pretty much all of my quality time with Lilly this week has been spent playing with Legos.  I recently brought home all of my old childhood Legos that my parents had been storing, which actually happened (unintentionally) right after we saw the Lego movie with the girls.  The girls (especially Lilly) LOVE these and play with them every day.

just a few Legos...

really old-school Legos from the 1970's (these Lego people pre-date the mini-figures)...anyone else remember these??

awesome classic spacemen

Lilly playing with my old police station...she put the bad guys in jail!

Something else that we've been doing a lot of in the past 2 weeks is hunting for cicada shells.  The girls are slightly obsessed and it is hard for them to walk past one without collecting it.  There are so many in our neighborhood...on tree trunks, on fence posts, on the ground, even on bricks!  And last week we even saw 3 coming out of their shells!  So cool!

emerging cicada at a friend's house

recently emerged cicada near the preschool playground

only 2 days worth of cicada collecting!

summer recap

The summer is almost over and the girls will be back in school in a few weeks.  However, they've stayed plenty busy with camps nearly every week...because I still have to (& want to) work in the summer.  But we've managed to squeeze in a few fun outings...here's a brief recap:

there's an old NASCAR track just north of Raleigh that is now a park (Occoneechee Speedway)...pretty neat to see what remains of the old dirt track

 

there was a little workout station in the middle of the track

and a dance floor??

the original grandstands are still there

reproduction of the concession stands ("boo" to the Pepsi sign...unfortunately, NC is Pepsi country)

cool old aerial photo of the track back in the 60's

early morning trek down to the Sandhills Gamelands

pitcher plant bog!

cool legume, Orbexilum pedunculatum (or Sampson's snakeroot to non-plant nerds)

We also took our "annual" trip (we hadn't been down there in nearly 3 years!) down to Ponte Vedra Beach, FL with Will's family.  I was lazy and didn't take my camera on the beach so no beach pictures (sorry!), but we all had a great time, and the girls really liked playing with their cousin Gage and building sand castles.  And Lilly was brave enough to go out in the ocean with Will a few times (Maggie...not really a fan of the ocean yet).  We even had a visit from a lost gopher tortoise.  And as usual, I spent some time hunting for shark's teeth...and I even trained Lilly to find them!

I think my tooth count for this trip was ~ 230...including one of the biggest ones I've found (definitely in my top 5)